Helicopters on a different part of the world

[BlenderPilot]

The following is my pictures webpage, it includes a bunch of pictures of helicopters taken by me while flying around, most of them show elevated heliports in this very highly congested part of the world.

It might be interesting to some people to see what helicopter aviation on a different part of the world

There is also a picture of me at the end in the helicopter of my dreams.
http://homepage.mac.com/helipilot/helicopterpictures/PhotoAlbum15.html

[zhishengji751]

great pics!
Very interesting to see.. thankyou for posting them.

Any (many ;) stories to go with the various heliports?

Looks like its pretty congested for heliports too :)

[discobeast]

thanx 4 the pics!:)

[TwinHueyMan]

Fascinating! Too bad you don't have more pictures of the 212 up there ;)

What city is that where the A109 is limited so heavily in pax cap? Whats the altitude?

Take more pictures when you get time!

Mike

[BlenderPilot]

I'll try to get more 212 pictures on the page, all of the pictures are taken in a 25 NM radius of Mexico City, Mexico, the elevation here is 7,340 FTMSL, and density altitude is usually above 9 or 10,000 feet.

Most of the heliports in the pictures are above 8,000 FTMSL, and the interesting part is that many times you have to land or takeoff from these heliports with only enough power hover IGE, and not enough to hover OGE, this means the approach has to be very accurate if you don't want to start to settle before you reach your spot close to 100 power, also you have to leave the pad with enough forward speed so that when the heli goes OGE and settles the tail won't hit the bldg., it is not uncommon to see these helicopter agressively diving for the ground (to gain speed and clear the tail) right after takeoff from one of these tall buildings.

In the last years the helicopter performance has improved the 412 has become 412EP, the AS365 is now 365N3, the 230 is now the 430, and and we don't sweat it soo ofter now, but before in lesser performance helicopters you had to develop a real feel for the helicopter, power was always at the limit and you had to sweat your way out.

[Thomas coupling]

Fantastic photos, Blender, well done. A varied and interesting job you have.

[vertalop]

Nice pix Blender!

Don't you find the 212's 14,000ft D.A. limit for T/O, landing and IGE manoeuvres a bit of a problem?

[donut king]

Great pic's!!

I'm jealous...gotta run out now and buy a digital camera to keep up with you guys!!!


P.S

Does every building in Mexico City have a helipad or what????

[Jonasraf]

nice pictures, I would like to see more if you have them.:cool:

[BlenderPilot]

You are right the 212 has a 14,000 FT limitation, but it does OK at 15,000 FT, since I work at a Bell Representative company we get a lot of their pilots to come down here for training, last time we had a Bell pilot over here he told me that in the case of some Bell helicopters the altitude limitations were imposed strictly because at certification time they didn't have higher terrain available to do the required testing, as it would be to expensive for them, and prospective majority of customers at the time didn't need this.

In the case of the 212, it has been operated for many years over here above 14,000 FTMSL, the neighboor state goverment had one in which they did volcanic monitoring for years all above 14,000 FT. Engine starts are difficult so I've never shut down so high.

[Jed A1]

Great pictures. Looks and sounds like interesting flying.

[TwinHueyMan]

I'm curious - what kind of useful load do you guys actually get for the 212 working at 15000ft+? I'm guessing its around 10deg C up there, and the Bell 212 Tech Book says right around 1300lbs (going on a bare empty ship)... this is on the "Takeoff and Landing GW limitations" chart which has the 14000ft limit written below it. If I go by the IGE hover chart, it says something along the lines of 2500lbs useful load (with all of the thrills of the max power takeoffs you described earlier). Which numbers (if any) are closest?

Do those 212s end up being like oversized 206s at that altitude?

Mike